Kudos to everyone who participated. We're consistently one of the better mock drafts on HF and that's a testament to the group we got. Look forward to seeing everyone again for the 2018 HFOil Mock Draft!

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Seven rounds in 27 days is damn impressive. Cheers to everyone for making this possible, can't wait till the 23rd/24th so I can watch the actual teams make me look stupid with my picks

The three russians in particular as they seem to go anywhere from 3rd to 5th round in most mocks. I think Kozlov and Mikhnin definitely seem to be worth getting picked with the skillsets they have. I guess Westerlund going undrafted here is no surprise as I'm probably the only one who has seen him, but I'd be surprised if no team took a flyer on him in the real thing. Overage kid who took a huge step forward this year leading his team in points while also being the goal-scoring leader with twice as many goals as the next guy on his team. Headed to NCAA, which should be a great place for him to develop his game. I see a real solid bottom-six guy there who can chip in some offense.

A very difficult draft for the Sharks, as they only have two picks in the top 140....So a lot of wild card selections round out this draft.

I have always believed that you must stick with BPA in the first two rounds. I was really expecting to take a forward in the first round, but I have Hague as the #4 player in this draft, and his upside was just too much to go off my board.
Ivan Chekhovich was a beast for the Russians in international competition. He has great edgework and fantastic puck skills. He is a little on the smaller side, but has the potential to blossom into an offensive dynamo.
Michael Pastujov was hurt much of the first half of the season and struggled some, but he turned his game around in the second half, and like Chekhovich, he was very strong in international competitions.
My plan late in this draft was to target high upside offensive players unless a goalie or defenseman really fell on my board. Both of my sixth round picks were players that went way below where I had them ranked on my board. Clayton Phillips is a smooth skating, puck-moving defenseman. He is a little on the small side, but as one of the youngest players in this draft, he may have a little room left to grow. Dayton Rasmussen is a big goaltender who is technically sound. His puck tracking is solid, and he anticipates well.
Jan Kern and Cameron Wright are offensive wild cards in this draft for me. Kern lit up the Czech U20 league with his speed and smarts, and he displays incredible balance which makes hard to knock off the puck despite his limited stature. Wright averaged 1.5 PPG in the OJHL regular season and ramped it up over 2 PPG in the playoffs. Wright was eligible for the last draft, but a late birthday. He has a slender frame that can be built on, and the playmaking winger has shown incredible offensive improvement year over year. He will develop his skills at Bowling Green University.
Max Martin is a personal favorite of mine. As much as I didn’t want to take a third D in this draft, I couldn’t pass him up. He moves the puck exceptionally well, and is strong character player. A little known fact is that as bad as the Raider’s team was this year, they were above .500 in their last 25 games with Martin playing a big role in that following his trade from Prince George. As an aside here, Martin’s defensive teammate Zack Hayes is another strong draft candidate who is more of a tough as nails shutdown defender in the mold of a Mark Borowiecki who I would not be surprised to see him be drafted this year as well as winger Parker Kelly, who is one of those do everything kids that coaches love. Three draft eligible youngsters that were real leaders on the Raider’s team down the stretch that played above .500.

Super happy with how my draft panned out. Every player except my last two went either earlier than I picked them or just after. Can't ask for much more than that. Surprised Oksanen didn't get drafted but with him being one of the oldest guys in the draft and not having spectacular production I sort of get it, but still goalscorers are hard to find and Oksanen has a great shot and good size and speed to go along with it. SÃ¯Â¿Â½derblom was just a flyer from my side, haven't seen him a lot but big swedish goalie with decent numbers. Teams definitely made worse picks than that today. On the flip side I was thrilled to see Tim SÃ¯Â¿Â½derlund get drafted. Wasn't sure he would, being an overager and being very diminuitive. Usually not a good combo, but not only did he get drafted, he got taken only thirteen picks after I selected him in the mock, whoa!

Even though guys like Popugayev, Strome and Ruzicka fell in the draft, I see them as players with significant upside. All three are skilled players with good NHL size and all three wouldn't have looked out of place had they gone much sooner in the draft. I'm also not surprised to see Villalta and Heponiemi go much earlier. Both had very successful seasons and both have extremely high upsides. Rathbone is a quality defender. Misley I wasn't entirely familiar with, but his play in the OJHL this season obviously didn't go unnoticed. As for Jack Ahcan, it's not entirely surprising he went underfted as an undersized double-overager, but he will receive contract offers in the near future, I'm certain.

I'm still very happy with the draft result. I feel I did a good job assessing the needs of the Hurricanes and focused on adding some high end depth up the middle. I targeted several players with significant offensive upside and added a quality goaltending prospect.

Not bad. Pretty pleased with my draft overall, though I think I like the Oilers actual draft better than my mock. Would have loved to pick up Rymsha though, and really surprised Meireles went undrafted.

Teams never fail to make me look like an idiot haha. Was so confident in both of these drafts, but yet again I picked 7 players who went undrafted. Some of my late round picks are less of a surprise, but I'm still absolutely baffled that Minulin and Warm were completely passed over.

May have been my favorite mock draft of these on HFOil. I was targeting Lias Andersson and was stoked he made it to me at 18. He's been a firey competitor and made it to the show already. Was really high on him and the Rangers made me look smart. DiPietro had a rough year. He was drafted to the goalie graveyard in Vancouver and is now dead to me and will have a chance once Demko flames out spectacularly. Move over Lias, my favourite pick of this mock draft was 111th and our boy Kirill Maksimov. I took him a full round before the Oilers and he's done nothing but impress us since. Called it a potential home run selection at the time and he's tracking really well.

Don't have a whole lot to say here, thought I did really well post draft in terms of finding value. Chmelevski must have said some awful awful things during the interviews, heh. Formenton made the show, but it was Ottawa, so... heh.

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Signup for the 2018 Mock Entry Draft will happen sometime after the Draft Lottery next week. I'll see where the playoffs series matchups are at and how it is likely to influence the draft order and we'll find a suitable start date.

This will be the 4th iteration of our annual mock draft and aside from having to make a whole new table format (and I hate the new table codes), it should run pretty smoothly. Always open to suggestions for improvement though!

Tolvanen would probably be a top 10 pick now. So suffice it to say I blew my own socks off there.

Davidsson is probably sticking around that mid 30 range.

Leschyshyn and Crotty hadn't really taken big leaps this year...but they both got some playoff games under their belt......Crotty has more time to grow but if I recall correctly I was pumping his tires to the moon last year. He's still got a ways to go with BU to really get to the bigs. And for Jake....I guess this is the season post-ACL so could be he has another level there.

Even though guys like Popugayev, Strome and Ruzicka fell in the draft, I see them as players with significant upside. All three are skilled players with good NHL size and all three wouldn't have looked out of place had they gone much sooner in the draft. I'm also not surprised to see Villalta and Heponiemi go much earlier. Both had very successful seasons and both have extremely high upsides. Rathbone is a quality defender. Misley I wasn't entirely familiar with, but his play in the OJHL this season obviously didn't go unnoticed. As for Jack Ahcan, it's not entirely surprising he went underfted as an undersized double-overager, but he will receive contract offers in the near future, I'm certain.

I'm still very happy with the draft result. I feel I did a good job assessing the needs of the Hurricanes and focused on adding some high end depth up the middle. I targeted several players with significant offensive upside and added a quality goaltending prospect.

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In my draft plus one season I'm really liking the trajectory of some of these picks. Carolina would definitely be excited about the CHL playoff picture seeing that they've got three key players on three separate teams playing in their respective league's Finals. Heponiemi is helping lead the charge in Swift Current. Strome has been a solid contributor in Hamilton and Villalta has backstopped the SSM Greyhounds to a stellar season. Ruzicka had quite the season in Sarnia as well--36 goals and over a PPG seeing the Sting into the second round.

Necas, their real life pick lit up the juniors this year and went home and had himself a year in Brno. He's looking very close to making it full time in the NHL.

Rathbone looks ready to take on Harvard next year while Misley had a slow start in Vermont. Ahcan, though undrafted, built on a quality offensive campaign in St Cloud.

The only one looking like a big miss was Nikita Popugaev at 42. He went home and played in CSKA's organization--a bit of a forgettable year, but he was a questionable prospect to start with.